Critical-thinking development can enhance students' reasoning and thinking abilities, but the extent to which additional critical-thinking instruction can enhance academic performance remains unclear. Therefore, there is a need to investigate whether providing additional critical-thinking instruction can improve academic performance. This study…

The Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core Mathematics Standards were created to assist U.S.A. school districts in providing the rigorous instruction needed to equip all students for college and career readiness and citizenship. Many minority students in the U.S.A. specifically, those in disadvantaged communities are still showing…

As computer games become integral to students' learning experiences, this dissertation investigates the impact of educational game-based learning on mathematical outcomes and attitudes among elementary school students. Employing data science techniques, including statistical approaches and quantitative analysis through data mining of gameplay data…

The purpose of this cross-sectional, non-experimental, explanatory quantitative research study was to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between instructional time and student achievement in Grades 3, 4, and 5 on the 2011 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge in Language Arts Literacy (LAL) and Mathematics. The unit…

The purpose of study 1 was to characterize energy expenditure (EE) during academic subjects and activities during an elementary school day. Children in 2nd-4th grades (N = 33) wore the SenseWear Armband (SWA) for five school days to measure EE. Teachers' logs were compared to SWA data to extract information about EE throughout the day. Energy…

Physical inactivity is an increasing problem among children and adolescents. The TAKE 10!® program, which integrates physical activity (PA) into academic subjects, was implemented in one elementary school in Magna, Utah to increase children's daily in-school PA. A three-study approach was used to examine: (a) effects of TAKE 10!® on elementary…

Empirical evidence suggests a correlation between motivation and reading achievement as well as a decline in motivation as students progress through the grades. In order to address this issue, it is necessary to determine the instructional methods that promote motivation and identity development in reading. This study examines the motivation and…

The purpose of this two-phase mixed-methods study was to describe the relationship of the ratio of the number of minutes of instructional classroom time to the number of minutes of scheduled unstructured recess time and the reading scores of fourth- and fifth-grade students in Title I schools in the state of Texas. Further, the beliefs of teachers…

This qualitative study examined the amount of time that fourth and fifth grade teachers devoted to literacy instruction within the time allotted to them within the daily literacy block. Prior research of the literacy block focused largely on primary grades (Allington, McGill-Franzen et a1.,2010; Cunningham & Allington, 2003; Morrow, 1992);…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)'s emphasis of reading, language arts, and mathematics (RLA&M) and its de-emphasis of science has been a source of great concern among educators. Through an objectivist and constructionist framework, this study explored the unforeseen effects of the NCLB on public science education among Title I (TI) and…